Certified Management Consultant (CMC)

This page introduces CMC (Certified Management Consultant) and sets out the main requirements for CMC. It describes accredited practices, associate and student membership grades. It also explains annual affirmation for existing holders of CMC.

See also the separate Introduction to Procedures related to CMC with links to all the relevant backing material and forms.

Introduction to CMC

CMC is an internationally recognised management consultancy qualification based on strict certification requirements relating to competence, ethics and independence. Only members of ICMCI (International Council of Management Consulting Institutes) can award the CMC qualification. IMCA is a member and to become a CMC, applicants must join IMCI as an Associate and proceed to demonstrate their skills against IMCA’s Statement of Competence.

Individuals can apply directly to IMCA to become an Associate as the precursor to securing CMC, or they can work towards CMC as a consequence of being employed within an Accredited Practice.

Main Requirements for CMC

The CMC assessment process requires individual applicants to demonstrate evidence of competence, experience, education and training.

The CMC is a competence-based qualification. Applicants must produce sufficient, relevant and timely evidence of competence as a management consultant by:

  • producing a detailed Assignment Study
  • making a presentation on the subject of the Assignment Study
  • completing a Professional Record, including a CV
  • providing corroboration of the evidence provided in the Assignment Study and Professional Record at an Assessment Interview
  • giving details of three independent referees who can vouch for the applicant’s competence as a management consultant
  • completing an Application Form

Applicants must:

  • Have three years experience of full-time management consulting before being designated as CMC (they need not, however, be an Associate of IMCI for three years);
  • Have a third level degree or appropriate qualification [experience may be accepted in lieu of a degree and candidates without a degree must be five years full time in management consultancy instead]
  • Provide evidence of ongoing training and continuing professional development in their Professional Record.

Pre-induction seminars are held to help candidates prepare their applications and to resolve queries relating to this.  Given that the timing and location of these seminars may not suit all, a version has been made available online.  Candidates can thus access an audio file (45 minutes - see below) and presentation to be used together outlining the application process. Candidates will be asked to verify that they have attended a seminar in person or on line before applying. Queries can be addressed to IMCA at any stage of the process and mentors can also be appointed to support candidates in their applications.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO FILE HERE:(45 minutes)

*If you are having difficulty listening to the audio file in the player above, you can download the audio file directly here

Accredited Consulting Practices

Accredited Practices are management consultancy practices whose training and other arrangements for the development of consultants working for their firms have been approved by IMCA. The assumption is that the standards applied by the Accredited Practice will be at least equivalent to the standard sought from individual applicants. Accredited Practices are required to have more than five full-time management consultants.

If the practice receives the Accredited Practice designation, all management consultants with less than three years experience are enrolled as Associates and those with more than three years experience become CMCs. An individual Application Form is submitted for each consultant, to which must be attached a CV.

Registered Consulting Practices

Registered Consulting Practices must on an ongoing basis:

  • Be engaged in the practice of management consultancy;
  • Subscribe to the Institute’s Code of Professional Conduct;
  • Have at least 51% of their principals designated as Certified Management Consultants (CMC), be fully paid-up Members or Fellows of the Institute and have completed/returned individual Annual Affirmation Forms issued at the start of the year; and
  • Undertake to encourage eligible members of staff to join the Institute and seek the CMC designation.

Associate Members

New applications for membership of IMCA are considered as applicants to become Associates of IMCA (Only in exceptional circumstances, will an applicant be designated as CMC without first becoming an Associate). Associates must:

  • Be a practising management consultant in Ireland; and
  • Have a third level degree or appropriate qualification [with experience in lieu acceptable as for a CMC]
  • Over a three year period, a new member with the requisite experience and qualifications can move through the Associate grade to become a CMC

Student Members

IMCA recognises a grade of Student Member from the MBS in Management Consultancy awarded by the Michael Smurfit Business School, and may recognise other courses as also being appropriate from time to time. Applications for Student Membership are countersigned by the Administrator of the post graduate programme.

Annual Affirmation

IMCA maintains an Annual Affirmation procedure for all grades to: a) obtain an annual written undertaking to adhere to the Code of Professional Conduct b) obtain a statement that they are currently in practice and c) to monitor the professional development activities undertaken.

Individual members complete an Annual Affirmation Form and maintain a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Log, a random sample of which is validated by IMCI.

Accredited Practices make an annual return affirming that all members are in compliance under a), b) and c) above.